Page 55 of Look at Her and Die

That didn’t keep the grin off my mouth, though.

A grin that stayed there until I fell asleep.

Fourteen

If I had one cookie, I’d split it in half, then give you the smaller piece.

—Searcy to Posy

SEARCY

I woke like any other day.

My eyes were crusty.

I had an aching back because my mattress was the same one that my mom had bought thirty years ago.

Oh, and I was fairly sure based on how my uterus was currently revolting that I was either on my period, or seconds away from starting my period.

Which was just fucking perfect because I was out of tampons—Calliope had used them all up last week—and didn’t really have the money to waste seeing as Anders and Kent both had school trips that I’d had to pay for.

I was deliciously sore…everywhere.

Well, other than my uterus.

That wasn’t sore in a fun way.

I was just glad that I got sex last night before this bullshit period hit.

Though, I had a feeling that Posy Hicks was the kind of man that wouldn’t let a little ol’ period stop him from getting what he wanted.

Getting up, I decided to skip running today since that was a surefire way to make my period happen faster.

I walked to the kitchen and got some Eggos started for the kids, then emptied out my tips from the day before.

Flicking on the TV to the morning news—I liked staying current with the events happening around the area—I started counting my tips.

One hundred and eleven dollars for an eight-hour shift.

Wasn’t great.

Wasn’t horrible.

I pushed the tips into the junk drawer for safe keeping noticing the lottery ticket in the same drawer where I had left it months ago, then headed for my sister and brother’s rooms.

After telling them breakfast was ready, I went about getting the dishes from the previous night into the dishwasher.

The droning of the male anchor’s voice was drowned out by the clatter of the dishes.

Anders got up and started searching through our junk drawer, a frown marring her face.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“A highlighter,” she mumbled. “Hey, these numbers match!”

I frowned and turned to see Anders holding the lottery ticket up and studying the numbers hard with the ones on the screen that she’d paused.

“What?” I asked.

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